1/31

Wow..what a week! I have never been so busy in my life! I spent about 9 hours driving this week back and forth from meetings in other cities..we had church all day on Sunday because we cover 3 units, and we were able to teach 16 lessons this week! Busy busy busy..But i'm grateful for it though..it's what i've been praying for..now the task is just getting everything all organized so it's not so stressful! haha..Well..Brianna's baptism went really well! She was baptized by one of the senior missionaries covering Fort Bragg, Elder Burris. Him and his wife are both from Austin, so we have a lot of great conversations about good ol' Texas every once in a while! My companion and i are doing great! I love serving with Elder Petersen, just because of how much i learn from him each week, as well as how well we get along! I'm impressed by how much the Church is embracing technology now a days! They want all of the missionaries in our mission to create a profile on www.mormon.org and to encourage our members to do the same and to invite their friends to look at it! Mormon.org has changed a TON! It's so amazing now..As a missionary, i would encourage each and every one of y'all to create a profile and get started on it! =) But also, not only do we have cell phones..but we can text now! It makes things so much easier and it is super effective! Next thing you know..we'll be proselyting via facebook! =)

Soo..the King family..the family that we taught and wants to get baptized but are moving to Fort Riley, Kansas..it turns out that they are moving one street away from the Ward Mission Leader in that ward..how crazy is that!? It's pretty amazing to see how the Lord works..even though they won't be baptized here..He's still doing everything He can to help them out! Oh..and speaking about solid people not being able to be baptized here..we had been teaching these 3 singles and 2 of them are pretty solid! But then we found out on Saturday that they are in the Army reserves and will be heading back home in 2 weeks..haha..it was pretty funny..it really does seem like we're professional seed planters lately! haha.. well..i love/miss y'all! I hope y'all are doing well! Write me! =)

Elder Johnson

1/25

Hey everyone! This has been a pretty great week! We've been blessed with so many miracles, it's hard to know where to start! This past Tuesday we were able to meet with a family named the Kings, who were a referral from that family that moved to El Paso. They are such a great family! They have so many great questions and it has been so much fun meeting with them and being able to answer their questions and help them to learn! We were also able to meet with someone named Nathanial Davis, who is going through his AIT schooling right now in the Army. (AIT school is the schooling you get right after basic training to teach you how to do your job) Well..because of some pretty strict rules that he's under, we weren't allowed to teach him in a member's home, so we ended up teaching him in the food court at the mall on base. Then in the middle of our lesson, some random guy inturrupts us and starts screaming out some anti at us..which was really awkward..haha..Finally he left and we kept teaching..then 10 minutes later he comes back again and starts doing it all over again! haha.. it was pretty weird..He did, however, compliment my smile! =) Well..inspite of the adversary's efforts to drive the spirit away, we actually had a great lesson with him! We have another appointment to see him this Saturday, as well as with someone else named Rose who is also going through AIT right now. Well..Brianna Stewart is finally getting baptized this Saturday! We're so excited for it! Some of her family is flying in for it, and we're trying to invite as many people as we can to it, so hopefully we'll have a great turn out! Well..i hope everything is going great for y'all! I love and miss y'all! Take care!

Elder Johnson

1/18

Hey y'all! How's everything going!? This has been a pretty good week! Elder Petersen and i have been getting along great! He's probably going to end up being my favorite companion, just because of how hard we work, and how much fun we have! (but most importantly because of how hard we work..) =) He's been a great example to me of how to work with members, and i'm really looking forward to learning more from him as we continue to work together! But, as far as missionary work, we weren't able to find any new investigators this week, however, we were able to find a TON of potential! There was a family in one of our wards whom came up to us and gave us a referral to stop by, right before they got transferred to the Army Base in El Paso, Texas. So we stopped by, which was a little intimidating because we aren't really allowed to knock on people's doors on Base, unless we have an appointment..But fortunately we were able to set a return appointment for today, so we're really excited for it!! There's also a couple of other people that we are trying to get a hold of, whom have great potential! So yeah..hopefully soon we'll begin to see some change! Well..i love/miss y'all and i hope y'all are doing great!

Elder Johnson

1/12

Soo..i just got my new companion..it's Elder Petersen..the missionary that used to follow my blog! haha..how nuts is that!? Such a small world..But yeah..i love him to death..he's so awesome! I've learned so much from him being my district leader these past 2 transfers! We're both really excited for this upcoming transfer! I really feel that us two are going to work together really well and see TONS of success! Also some more crazy news..it snowed again! We got about 4 more inches of snow..and then it froze over night and turned into ice! The librairy was closed, which is why it is taking me so long to finally send this email out, however it was pretty fun to slide around on! =) We're teaching a great family named the "Williams" They have a 13 year old daughter that got baptized about a month ago when she was visiting her Mom in Arkansas, then she came back and her parents are really supportive of her going to the church! We've also been able to teach them a little bit. There hasn't been any tremendous progress yet, although they did come to church, but i know that as they read the Book of Mormon, it will help them out a ton! Well..we're going to be hitting the pavement pretty hard this week, so wish us good luck!! I love/miss y'all! Take care!

Elder Johnson

1/3

Hey everyone! Happy new year! This has been a pretty great week! Kind've slow teaching wise, but it has still been pretty fun! Soo..Ryan Dudash ended up having to PCS (permanant change of station) down to Fort Stewart sooner than expected, so he didn't have a chance to be baptized here, but he will be baptized down in Georgia! We are really excited for him! He was out of town for about 2 weeks, and didn't smoke the entire time! (GREAT accomplishment!!) Also, Brianna Stewart set a baptismal date for the 29th of January! Brianna is the 10 year old girl that is really smart and her mom is in the Army! So yeah..we're really excited for her, too! Earlier this week, we heard that a family that we had tracted into was going through a hard time, so we got a box and emptied our cubbards, then drove over to their home. Then we snuck up to the house, all nice and sneaky like because their front door was open, left the box on the doorstep with a note that said "Merry Late Christmas", and booked it back to the car, all without getting caught! I can only imagine what it looked like..two guys dressed in dark suits, sneaking up to a house in the roughest part of Fayetteville with some kind of package and leaving it on a doorstep, then sprinting back to the car and driving away really fast! (after we put on our dark sunglasses, of course) But it felt really good and i'm glad we did it! We haven't seen that family yet, so i don't know if they know it was us or not. Other than that, it has just been a pretty regular week! We are struggling a little bit with our finding efforts though, so we're going to be working on that a ton this week!

Well, i love/miss y'all and i hope y'all are doing great! Take care!

Elder Johnson